Page 16 of His Tesoro

“Sofiya,” I said, a touch of exasperation in my voice, “you’re married to the Don of the Italian Mafia now. That makes you queen. You can’t just let people push you around.”

“You want me to fight against you?” She cocked her head, and an edge of sass entered her voice. Instead of irritating me, my lip twitched as though tempted to smile. I controlled my expression just in time.

“No.” Then I decided to push her a bit to see what response I would get. “You should obey me.”

Irritation flashed over her face, and this time, I couldn’t stop my amused expression. I found I didn’t mind a bit of fire in my new bride. I brought my hand to my face to hide my smile, but the slight widening of her eyes told me she caught it.

I cleared my throat. “You can ask me questions, Sofiya. This might not be a real marriage, but I’m not your jailer.” If we were going to convince the Family this was a real marriage, she couldn’t be afraid of me.

She bit her lip and averted her gaze before nodding. An awkward silence fell over us, and I glanced at my phone, willing the pizza to arrive to save me. Sofiya fidgeted, her legs bouncing against the kitchen island. I stared at them.

“What’s wrong with your legs?”

She froze at my harsh tone. “Oh, um, I have something called hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos.” She dug her fingers into her thighs. I had to physically stop myself from replacing her hands with my own.

“What is that?”

“It’s a connective tissue disorder, so my joints aren’t super stable. My hips and knees are the worst. They can dislocate or do something called subluxing, which is like a partial dislocation. I started using the rollator a couple of years ago, but recently it hasn’t been enough, and I’ve had to use a wheelchair.”

Her voice had quieted until it was almost a whisper, her cheeks turning bright red. In our world, image was power, so it wasn’t surprising that she carried shame. But I found I didn’t care much that this made her vulnerable. Did it really matter when I was here to protect her?

“Is it dangerous?” I got out through gritted teeth.

“I don’t think so?” It came out as a question.

“How do you not know?”

My stomach swooped when Sofiya flinched at my harsh tone.

“I’ve never had consistent access to medical care, so I’ve just had to piece things together.”

I clenched my jaw, nodding for her to continue.

“I started having issues when I was little. I rolled my ankles all the time and my legs were always banged up from where I’d tripped and fallen. I had horrible growing pains, headaches, and other random symptoms. As I got older, things got worse and I had a series of bad dislocations. I finally convinced my parents I wasn’t making it up. They took me to see several doctors before one finally diagnosed me, but I never saw him again after that.”

Fuck. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Rustik had the doctor killed just for knowing about such a weakness in his family. Sofiya and I had both grown up in top organized crime families, but it was clear our childhoods couldn’t have been more different. My father had been strict with me, rarely showing affection as he prepared me to be the next Don, but I had never doubted his love. I had never doubted that everything he did was for our family’s benefit. Whereas Rustik obviously didn’t give a damn about his daughter.

“What’s the treatment?”

“I don’t think there really is any. I mean, pain medication and heating pads can help, and I think some people do physical therapy. And, of course, the mobility aids. But there’s no cure or anything.”

A knock at the door prevented me from responding. I pulled up the hallway camera on my phone and saw Romeo with our pizza. I opened the door just wide enough to grab it from him.

“What, you’re not going to invite me inside?” he asked with an infuriating smile.

I ignored his question. “Did you get her medical records?”

His expression sobered. “I’ve been meaning to update you on that. Franco can’t find anything.”

Franco was my top hacker and had never failed to get me the information I needed. “What do you mean?”

“If she had medical records, someone destroyed them. And I mean destroyed. You know Franco could have found them if they were just hidden.”

This had Rustik all over it. Bastard.

I gave Romeo a curt nod before shutting the door in his face.

I set the pizza down on the kitchen island and grabbed two plates. At least I knew where those were.

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